Testing for mood congruent recall with environmentally induced mood

Three experiments examined the effects of natural and urban environments on mood and the subsequent recall of emotionally valenced materials. In exper iment 1, subjects read words denoting positive and negative emotions and ra ted how well the words applied to them in general. photographic simulations of natural and urban/industrial environments were then used to induce eith er positive or negative moods prior to free recall of the words used for se lf-description. Experiment 2 used similar environmental simulations to indu ce different moods, after which subjects recalled personal memories. Experi ment 3 was conducted in field settings (botanical garden and urban intersec tion) and crossed environment with type of material to be recalled in a fac torial design. In all three experiments the environmental manipulation prod uced changes in self-reported moods as expected; however, the mood effects were, at most, moderate in size. None of the experiments produced clear evi dence of mood congruent recall. The results suggest that mood congruence ef fects do not occur with the normally small to moderate mood variations attr ibutable to environmental variations. (C) 1999 Academic Press.